Amazingly, today is 50 years since one of the most fabled Manchester Derbies in history, as Manchester United hosted Manchester City at Old Trafford, with City in the safety of midtable ahead of their last match of the First Division season, and United needed a series of unlikely results to avoid relegation for the first time since 1938, mainly in that they needed no worse than a draw against City, coupled with a win against Stoke City on the Monday night, and for Birmingham City to lose against Norwich City at St Andrews on the same day as the Derby.

The other facet to the story was that after an immensely successful 11-year tenure at Manchester United that saw him score 237 goals, Denis Law returned to Old Trafford as a Manchester City player, having rejoined the Citizens on a free transfer before the season, some 12 years after he’d originally left the club to play in Italy for Torino, then returned to England after a season and signed a British record transfer for United.

In what was a tense game that featured 3 pitch invasions before the match began, the scores still remained at 0-0 after 80 minutes as United’s blunt attack failed to find a breakthrough, even when Norwich held the lead against Birmingham, then City went forward and Fanny Lee put a low cross into the centre of the box, and there to instinctively to flick the ball past Alex Stepney was none other than the King of the Stretford End, Denis Law.

The subsequent pitch invasion resulted in the game being abandoned in the 85th minute, with the Football League declaring the result would remain a 1-0 win to City, confirming that for the first time in 36 years, and only 6 years after winning the European Cup, Manchester United were relegated from the First Division.

A thought just about unthinkable in today’s age of the Premier League, but it really did happen.

An almost distraught Law didn’t celebrate the goal and left the pitch, believing that he’d relegated the club that had made him King, but as it turned out, United would’ve been relegated regardless of victory, as Birmingham came from behind to defeat Norwich and West Ham drew against Liverpool, leaving them both over a game clear of United in the days of 2 points for a win, with the Red Devils having one game to play against Stoke City on Monday evening, which Stoke won 1-0, so ultimately United finished 5 points off safety.

Which means that despite it being a story too good to be true, Denis Law didn’t relegate Manchester United, but it would the last goal Law scored in professional football, and in what turned out to be his last appearance in top flight football, he retired just before the 1974-75 season began.

“I have seldom felt so depressed in my life as I did that weekend. After 19 years of giving everything I had to score goals, I have finally scored one which I almost wished I hadn’t.” – Denis Law

When you think about it, the ’73-74 season really was every imaginable nightmare for United fans:

– United get relegated by City, with the winning goal scored by a player who is just about United’s greatest player in history

– Leeds United won the league

– Liverpool finished 2nd and won the FA Cup.

To quote Jeremy Clarkson, “Still, could be worse…”